Nutrition - Fitness Mantra : A Health and Fitness Blog

Fitness Mantra del.icio.us page Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

“Don’t be tricked by low-fat labels” chastises an important article from MSNBC which explains the often ignored reality: low-fat is not really low-calories.

Often the fat-free version is not much lower in calories than the regular version. For example, each low-fat Oreo cookie has 50 calories. The regular version has just over three calories more. [..] Where low-fat granola is indeed lower in fat, it is only about 12 percent lower in calories. It does not take a lot of mindless munching to scarf down an extra 12 percent of granola, especially while thinking you are doing your body good.

The key issue here is that a low-fat label sometimes gives us the excuse we need to eat more of the food thinking it’s doing us good when in reality there might not be a lot of difference in the total calories consumed. Yes, it has been and will always be all about the calories: It’s the total calories that count.

The article concludes with: “Few low-fat snacks are nearly as tasty as their regular version. So rather than overeating something you don’t even really like, enjoy the regular version — but only half as much of it.” Sage advice - and the taste thing is something I alluded to sometime back when I evaluated the suddenly popular 100-calories packs!

Here are the week’s top health and fitness stories:

Don’t be tricked by low-fat labels: Using only two words “low fat”, I bet I could get you to overeat a snack you don’t even really like.
Madison, Wis., is No. 1 for walking: Prevention magazine named Madison - 1,300 miles north of sunny Miami - as the most walkable of the country’s 100 most populated cities.
Man bedridden by obesity leaves home: A man who once weighed well over a half ton left his house for the first time in five years Wednesday
Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Boost Brain: Omega-3 fatty acids — found in foods including walnuts, flax, and fatty fish such as salmon and sardines — may boost brain areas that govern mood.
The Benefits of Yogurt: Have you noticed that the yogurt section of most grocery stores has practically taken over the dairy aisle?
Obese mothers-to-be ‘burden NHS’: Obese mothers-to-be need significantly more NHS care than pregnant women of a healthy weight, a study says.
Baby Boomers in Bad Shape: Baby boomers appear to be heading for retirement in worse shape than their elders born in the years before World War II.
Makers of Sodas Try a New Pitch: They’re Healthy: For Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, it’s a marketing opportunity. In coming months, both companies will introduce new carbonated drinks that are fortified with vitamins and minerals.
Trans Fat Fight Claims Butter as a Victim: Some researchers believe that the trans fat that occurs naturally in butter, meat, milk and cheese might actually be healthy.
Congress Weighs School Junk Food Laws: Congress could move this year to restrict junk food sales in public schools as lawmakers search for ways to make a dent in the nation’s obesity problem.
Obese Couples Risk Lower Fertility: A couple trying to conceive may face an extra challenge when both the man and the woman are overweight or obese, new research suggests.
‘Personal’ health websites sought: People searching online for health advice often reject sites giving high quality information in favour of those with a human touch, a study suggests.
Atkins diet tops other popular weight-loss plans, study finds: The low-carb, high-fat Atkins diet gets higher marks in one of the biggest, longest head-to-head studies of popular weight-loss plans, beating the Zone, the Ornish diet and even U.S. guidelines.
Sally Squires - District May Add Data to the Menu: If you’re wondering how you can eat out without overloading on calories, a bill slated to be introduced in the D.C. Council today could soon help.
Eating Out Choices: If last week’s news that some restaurant fare can have more than a day’s worth of calories and fat has left you with indigestion about what to order, find some relief in today’s Lean Plate Club.
Fiery Pepper Fatal for Fat Cells?: Capsaicin, the fiery compound in hot red peppers, may make fledging fat cells self-destruct, Taiwanese scientists report.
How Accurate Is Body Mass Index, or BMI?: BMI does not take into account age, gender, or muscle mass. Nor does it distinguish between lean body mass and fat mass.
Fitness that functions like you do: The idea is simply to help an individual function better outside of the gym.
How Eating Less Might Make You Live Longer: A calorie-restricted diet provides all the nutrients necessary for a healthy life but minimizes the energy (calories) supplied in the diet.
Obesity surgery triples among U.S. teens: The number of U.S. children having obesity surgery has tripled in recent years, surging at a pace that could mean more than 1,000 such operations this year, new research suggests.
Study: Orange tomatoes healthier than red: Researchers said they’ve found that lighter-skinned tangerine tomatoes contain lycopene that is more easily absorbed than the kind in red varieties.
Latin American hearts suffer from obesity, stress - CNN.com: Abdominal obesity is a bigger heart attack risk factor in Latin America than elsewhere, partly because of surging consumption of junk foods loaded with sugar and fat, researchers reported Monday.
Childhood obesity can trigger early puberty: Childhood obesity in the United States appears to be causing girls to reach puberty at an earlier age, for reasons that are not clear, a study said on Monday.
Timing is everything: When to hit the gym: Personal trainers and experts on exercise say the effectiveness of your gym time depends partly on your body rhythms as well as what exactly you’re trying to get out of it

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Have a great weekend!

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“Skim milk? It’s just glorified water!”
“Plain Oatmeal? Do humans eat that?”
“Plain Cheerios? Bleecchhhh!”

Yes, readers - I totally understand! I hear similar outbursts a lot at home (mostly from guests but sometimes even from that person in the mirror). Simply knowing the good effects of a raw/plain/unsweetened/low-fat food does not make it any more palatable. If wolfing down raw broccoli and natural oatmeal is difficult at first then today’s quick tip is perfect for you:

“Mix And Match Healthful And Not-As-Healthful Foods”

You can improve the healthfulness of a food by mixing different varieties together. You can begin with equal quantities of the two and then slowly reduce the less healthy variety until you get used to the taste of the healthy food. Here are some practical examples:

Milk: Mix 1/2 cup skim milk with 1/2 cup 2% milk. Slowly make the other half 1% and then reduce the quantity to 1/4 cup and so on until skim milk doesn’t taste too bad.
Oatmeal: Mix about 3 or 4 servings of regular oatmeal with a single serving pouch of sweetened oatmeal (you might as well get your favorite flavor - the fruit varieties rule in our home!) and store in a container. Use this “mixed bag” to begin with and as usual slowly reduce the ratio of the sweetened variety.
Cheerios: Mix in Honey Nut Cheerios (or Fruit-flavored Cheerios) with Plain Cheerios and store in a … you get the idea.

Note that none of the flavored or sweetened foods mentioned above are really that bad for you (that’s why I say “Not As Healthful” - there are far worse things you could be eating) - but if you have made up your mind to reduce your dependence on sugary/sweetened foods or would like to switch to skim milk, this idea will help you in achieving that goal.
The bottomline is that by doing this you are simply training your tongue to discover, extract and relish the flavor of natural, low-fat or unsweetened foods (believe me, it’s not as impossible as you might think - like anything else taste can be trained with a little effort).

What ideas do you use at home to make eating healthy that much easier? Do share your stories in the comments section for everyone to enjoy and benefit from!

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